Steven Nelson <steven-nelson@uiowa.edu> wrote:
Someone asked:
Whoever that someone was has some facts wrong.
What are the speeds of your G3 machines. You would need at least a
machine running 600 to make it work right.
All 400 MHz and faster iMac G3s are officially supported by Mac OS X
10.4, and I've used it on at least two 400 MHz models.
As to reading the install disk, your machines should see the disk, it just
will not install/ update and if it does will have real problems running
it. I have a G3-600 iMac that runs Tiger ok, but my G3-366 ClamShell will
not.
Many iMac G3s only have a CD-ROM or CD-RW drive, which won't read a
DVD-ROM.
There aren't any 366 MHz iMac G3s. Probably meant 333 MHz or 266 MHz
(both of which have tray loading CD-ROM drives and no Firewire port).
---------------
My iMacG3s are old, 266MHz machines. Clamshell, tray loading.
Those machines are officially unsupported by Mac OS X 10.4, but can
probably get it running via a workaround.
I also run 10.3 on a old PM7600 with a 1GHz G3. Same problem - the CD
drive won't read a Tiger DVD to install.
These were all before the Combo drives, which could read DVDs.
No iMac G3 came with a Combo drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW). Some have CD-ROM
(including all tray loading models), some DVD-ROM, some CD-RW.
Mac OS X 10.4 was also available on CD-ROM (by special order from Apple
in exchange for the original DVD-ROM) but that doesn't change the
minimum system requirement: built-in Firewire (which means a 400 MHz or
faster iMac G3).
I imagine that installing Tiger on a iMacG3 may require using
XPostFacto. XPF is what I used to install Panther on the 7600, and a
WGS8550 with a G4 cpu.
My machines: PM6500 with 10.2.8 (jaguar), PM7600 with 10.3.9
(panther), 2 iMac G3 with 10.3.9, WGS 8550 with 10.4.11(tiger), 2 iMac
G4 with 10.4.11, 2 iMac G5 with 10.5.7 (leopard). I also have a
couple ][GS 6.0.1 running and several IIGSes and IIes in storage. I
need a hobby! ;-)
You can probably use an iMac G4 or iMac G5 to install 10.4 on a suitable
ATA hard drive (e.g. temporarily in an external enclosure) which is then
installed inside the iMac G3, without having to use XPostFacto.
It depends on whether Apple left code in 10.4 to support models that far
back. I know this trick works with the 350 MHz iMac G3 (slot loading
CD-ROM drive but no Firewire port) but I don't recall hearing about
earlier iMac G3s.
If it didn't work, then XPostFacto will probably solve the problem.
Whether it is worth the effort is another question. Maximum memory on
the tray loading iMac G3 is 512 MB (384 MB for the original model), and
that's barely enough to run Tiger comfortably.
The slot loading models are a big step up (especially 400 MHz+, due to
having Firewire). Maximum memory is 1 GB and easily accessible.